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Man I miss some aspects of my college/university years. Namely going out for a drink in a crowded bar with lots of friends. Being a shameless hermit the last four years has had some lasting effects on some of our friend circles. Nobody is dead, that I am aware of, but we are all hiding away from Covid and aren’t getting together for board games, drinks, dinners or movies any more. Rather isolating, especially since I work alone, from home. Though this year is better as my wife has the year off, so I do have one person to talk to regularly between 8:00am and 3:00pm, roughly speaking. So that has been really pleasant. Going to be really quiet next year when she goes back to work again.

Yes, my lede was about the first scene, of about 4 minutes of the movie where Rooney Mara dumps Jesse Eisenberg in the local pub. Made me remember having family and friends up in our college town twenty some odd years ago to eat and drink in a ritzy pub downtown. Plus I had just watched a YouTube video essay on the writing and directing/editing of The Social Network. It’s been a while since I’d seen it, so I grabbed my dvd copy and sat down to watch it last night. Still has the $6.99 price tag on it from when Blockbuster liquidated all of their on premise assets. Which is going back a few years too. Lots of clear memories pre pandemic, and a muddled puddle of memories here during. The whole 2020-2023 stretch has flowed together into a great morass of overlapping memory holed incidents. Panic, fear, and high stress will do that to you. Or so I’m told.

Had to begin the process of discarding all the rotten gourds and pumpkins today. The recent frosts, and rains have done a number on all my exposed legume decorations. Mushy, stinky pumpkins are a whole lot like russian roulette. Will it come apart in my hands and drench me in the stink? Or will it last until the compost pile? Nobody knows! Step right up, but don’t wear your best clothes or you’ll regret it.

Also means I’ll get more pumpkins next year as the seeds ride out the winter in the heap, and sprout up as any number of vines come late Spring, early Summer. That’s a crap shoot too. Are the vines for pumpkins, or tiny gourds? Which kinds? Yellow, white, pink, orange pumpkins, or striped long necked gourds? The vines all look the same! Whee!

Speaking of gardening, I’ll need to transplant at least two saplings in the spring as I don’t want to keep them near the house/foundation where they currently reside. I attempted to move a Walnut in the fall, but we were in a 21 day drought and I do not believe the sapling survived the move. We’ll see for sure next year. I moved an Oak the year before and it was really rainy, and that one didn’t survive either. So, who knows what will work when moving trees around here in late September or October. I sure as hell don’t.

Happy Thursday, we are now into November! Ahhhhhh! This year is moving so quickly! Best try to finish the last two books on my list. My Adrian Tchaikovsky, and a new Murderbot book coming later this month. Which, I do believe is to be the last book in the series. I hope it is both long and exciting. Cheers to what I hope will be a great finale to a wonderful set of novels, which are on the shorter side. May all the last books of a series you follow be great! Ciao Bella.

Didn’t even get to see the kids in their costumes, or go visit all the pumpkins we spent hours carving out in the damp rain the last few days. I spent that time wrapped in blankets, hydrating a headache and napping. I woke up and caught a few episodes of Friends randomly, but otherwise not how I intended to spend my Halloween night. All that build up to feel like absolute dog shit on the day, and then miss it all. Boo-Urns! Hiss!

So I guess I’ll leave the blow ups out for atleast another night to make up for missing the big day. I didn’t hear too many people outside with the bowl of candy. Must have been a quiet night. I didn’t see flash lights, reflectors, head lamps, glow sticks or anything of that nature. Well, I say that, but I did see one kid in a light up costume, so I guess that counts towards the tally? Yeah. It does.

Now that we’re into November I need to do invoices and look towards putting up the exterior Christmas lights while it isn’t snowing, or freezing rain. I’ll give that a day or two more before I do any of that. Take care of yourselves iut there. Ciao Bella.

Gearing up for the Halloween spectacle by spending several hours gutting, cleaning, and carving up pumpkins for the “Happy Halloween” display on my inlaws front lawn. We recently erected a brand new 13ft tall Jack Skelington that lights up, sings, and moves it’s head side to side. It is pretty menacing when you get right up underneath it. Wasn’t too hard to assemble either, which is nice.

Our house has five blow ups, a light up pumpkin, and about 100 gourds laying around. Oh, and some bloody hand prints on the brick work as a final touch. We’ll have those well into the new year I imagine.

Best of luck to you all with kids in your lives, for a cold night ahead walking around trick or treating.

Fundraising for Prom is in full swing and the glazed donuts will start to flow by the dozen around York Region in the next few weeks, so act accordingly. Those sugary melt in your mouth, land on your hips donuts will be sold by the dozen, and eaten by the dozen too. They won’t last long. So you might aswell buy two boxes of them. Just saying what we are all thinking here folks.

Back again to Monday. A rainy, cold, breezy Monday morning at that. Dim light, puddles and an icy wind that cuts right through you. I should go throw some kids close in the wash, and head over to do some grocery shopping today. But – with Halloween tomorrow we will likely spend a few hours today decorating, and carving messages in pumpkins for my inlaws.

Then all eyes turn to Christmas, and the last few birthdays in our family before the new year. The last party of the year is booked, planned and waiting to move ahead in early December. Then the kids will lean full tilt into winter break and all of the holiday parties, meals, gift exchanges, and the big day itself. We’ll need to find the tree, and decorate outside, and clean up all these loose toys to make room for Santa Claus. Great time of year. Can’t wait.

And it was not me. I did however win one of the draws, but one very famous family in our town won about 50% of all of the prizes. Call after call of “I won!” From the same lady at the same table. Funny at first, then not funny at all, then back to being funny again after a few other folks won some stuff too. Had to be there.

The Greek food for dinner was excellent. I ate until I could eat no more. We had four whole glorious hours with no kids, and some friends nearby. I had a couple of stiff drinks, and enjoyed myself. Do reccomend,  and would go again.

Here it is at a quarter to nine in the morning at the light from the window is very dim, and dreary. I think we lucked out with yeaterdays surprisingly sunny day. I tackled several of the outdoor chores while I had the chance. Still need to work in the patio furniture to the shed, but I did everything else. Place a check mark squarely in the win column for me! Best be up and about my day now. Ciao Bella!

Kids are being taken to do lots of programming today because we are going to have a date night for the first time, in several months. So first thing today my wife took the kids who are in costumes to the Zoo, to see the animals maul the pumpkins we delivered one night earlier this week. Then I’m taking them trick or treating along main street for an hour to ninety minutes, and tonight my sister inlaw is supposed to take them to go do a drive through light festival to help kill some time while the kids are with grandma and grandpa. As far as I know tonights event is a dressy affair. So hair cut, shave, and real clothes are required of us. Proper shoes too, I’d imagine. Looking forward to it.

We finally closed the inlaws pool last night, so of course my knees, my hips, and my back are less than happy with me about all that bending, and kneeling on the paving stones. They didn’t add much slack at all to the pool cover, so if it isn’t 100%, it will have to be undone, shifted/rotated slightly, and reattached. It’s an hours long process and can come down to just being a few millimeters off, and needed to be corrected – again. It’s rather unfortunate. Should have been created with 4 to 6 inches of slack to avoid that issue. Or be able to stretch just a couple of percent. A 2% or 3% ability to stretch would really come in handy when you’re off by just enough millimeters to warrant a tear down to have to start again. Aggravating to say the least.

I turned the dishwasher on a while ago, but as I look around the room I’m seeing plates, cups, and bowls lying about that weren’t brought to the kitchen, and were just abandoned in situ. Lovely. I just love having to clean the same messes seven days a week. Fun!

I think I need to buy some burlap to wrap our cedar trees in, as last years wet snow caused them to bend and distort under the added weight. I retrained them with string and rope tie downs over the spring and early summer, but it seems means to just cycle through that type of thing year after year. I need to wrap the AC unit. Pull up all the lights, and patio furniture, and tidy up the hoses, pressure washer etc… lots of exterior chores to do. Take down the swings, pull the slack line apart, and store that carefully for the winter. Pull up the dahlias and the glad bulbs. Much to do outdoors still. Check the rain gutters for leaves. Clear the down spouts. Dig out the snow shovels, and salt bags. November can either be sunny and warm, rain soaked, or a snowy winter wonderland. I have no idea which it will end up being. I’d like to get the Christmas lights up while it isn’t bitterly cold, if I can help it. They won’t get turned on until after Remembrance Day, that much I can do to hold back Christmas. I used to want to wait until after all the birthdays were done to focus on the holidays, but that leaves us perilously little time to feel festive! So now the last two birthdays in the family prior to Christmas have santa overtones in the background. Which is fun when you are nine, less so at fifty.

Putting away the outdoor furniture is an endeavour. I need to pull the shed apart. It’s a whole thing. I really have to be in the mood for it. No walking away in the middle of the job. Makes me wish that my shed was twice the size, so I could clean up and not have to pull everything out to reorganize and manoeuvre around. Rah-rah. Yeah I hear it. It needs to get done. These last few 16°C sunny days would have worked out great for it, but other tasks took priority. Now I’ll wind up doing it all in the rain. Such is life.

I am always fascinated by the work lives and career trajectories of my friends. I’m in awe of others who are able to wend their way through a corporate ladder, and are able to climb up it successfully. Being able to give 2 or 3 years to a particular brand or job, and then use that to catapult to something bigger and better. Now I don’t know all the ins and outs, but from where I am in the spectator seats, I am captivated by their ability to navigate the system. I hated starting someplace new. It fills me with dread. I detest it. I don’t much like meeting new people because I get the same queasy feeling. So thumbs up to those who can, and are able to negotiate the scene and move up to something better. Be it the hours, the commute, the brand, the size of your available team, the title, the pay structure or bonuses. Whatever it is, I salute your ability to create momentum for yourselves. Well done. Applause. Hearty pat on the back from me.

Well it’s Friday. Halloween is drawing near. So is the cold rainy weeks of November. I have my next Covid shot scheduled for a week today. Gotta get it while the getting is good.

Take care out there. Ciao Bella!

Work on the pine bed frame has progressed just a little over the course of this week. I’m sure that if I had of tried I could have done the whole lot in a very dedicated two or three day marathon. But I chose to do it little by little, with a mad dash sprinkled in every so often. Paid work, and house chores take priority over my hobbies. My main issue now is that to fine tune the bed I need to assemble it entirely, and my garage is not particularly wide, so a 44″ wide by 80″ long bed is kind of large for the space I have available. It’s times like these where I wish we had a double garage, so I could have a 4x8ft assembly table to work on. This is why I tend to focus on small projects. Don’t misunderstand me, I still drag my feet and work slowly on small stuff, but this big item does present a challenge I’m not too thrilled to have to work around. I’m happy I get to do stuff like build furniture for myself and family. I’m just unhappy with the space limitations I have. Creates a real mental block. Presents an unpleasant obstacle.

Next up is a book case, I think. That is more my size. Not too tall, and not too wide. I’m looking into a grid pattern cubby for my youngest daughter as well.  I think these may get built in the spring. Unless it stays warm-ish deep into late Nov-Dec it will soon be too cold to work in my unheated, poorly insulated garage shop. I think I may need to switch focus from wanting to buy tools, and buy enough insulation that I can keep the garage from freezing solid each winter, or becoming swelteringly hot come late summer. Everything is expensive. Gah! Too damn expensive!

I think I have expressed a desire to both insulate, and cover my garage walls in a tongue & groove board or plywood sheathing so that I can properly hang/display some hand tools. That’s a pretty pricey endeavour. I’d like to get some more lighting wired in, and a heater and air cleaner too. The list grows every time I think about it. Exhaust fans for spraying finishes and not gasing myself, the list goes on.

If I had that kind of money laying about, our vehicles would be new(ish), and we’d have a new fridge, and any other household item upgraded, replaced, or fixed first. Then I wouldn’t feel selfish about buying a few larger tools, or building out the shop. Oh, oh! The floors in the garage are a rough mess, so I’d love to have the floors tidied up too. Pour some self leveling concrete, and put some foam padding down to stand on. I wouldn’t go epoxy, too fancy for my tastes. But a level floor that castors can roll on effortlessly and not catch/drag would be a big win.

I have a running list of upgrades I’d like to make should I ever win a lottery, or score a massive project/pay day pay out. It’s fun to day dream!

Have a great Thursday. Ciao Bella!

The grade ones and twos are missing nearly 50% of the student population from a new “Tummy Bug“, that is going around. Complete with fever, sore throat, vomiting, and so much more. Sounds familiar huh? Probably not. Probably is. Probably. What!?!

How is your Wednesday going? I feel as though ours is all over the place. The temperature is warm, nearing hot. The sky is dark earlier and earlier at night. Our mornings are getting tougher due to just how dim the sunlight is at seven am-ish these days. After all that Hump Day is here! Also Pizza Lunch Day. Less than a week until Halloween. So much left to do!

The kids decided to help decorate so they mixed up clear pva glue, red acrylic paint, and a touch of water and left hundreds of bloody hand prints all over the glass doors, windows, front walkway, and bricks by the front entrance. I somehow thought they would be more subtle. Nope. We now reside in an abattoir apparently. Very authentic. The porous brick work is going to hold on to the paint pigment for weeks, if not months to come. Merry Christmas from the slaughter house four I guess. What can I do? If the weather continues to hold after the big night I could try to pressure wash it. That’s November me’s problem to sort out.

Oh the dimness of the light. All it makes me want to do is go back to bed, or have a several hours long nap. I was going to work outside, but it began to rain as soon as I got home this morning after school drop off. Limits my desire to prune shrubs if I’m going to get poured on.

I could work on the bed project. I made considerable progress yesterday. I cut out all of the recesses for the vertical slats, by binding my rails together and using the table saw. I also cut the slat tenons too. I could potentially start to glue & screw much of this thing together. But it does need some sanding after all. The two additional feet I made need to get cleaned up. I have lots of round overs to do on several edges to soften things up under hand. All the feet need to be cut to their final lengths, and then I’ll have hole/gap filling, planing surfaces to meet nice and flush, even more sanding, then staining to do. Attaching the feet, and possibly adding a minor head board to stop pillows from pushing off the bed at night. Even with all of that left, I’m further ahead than I was before. And that’s what counts. If I was more exact when cutting I’d have a lot less touch up work to do, but I always seem to miss something, somewhere. I’ll have to notch out a few things I’m sure in order to get it all to come together in the end. Gap filling is going to be a must, I can feel it in my bones.

I didn’t want to swap out my regular saw blade for my dado stack, so all of my cuts took much longer than they needed go. But, I think I will have a better fit by moving slowly. So no harm done. Made a hell of a mess with saw dust yesterday, so I feel like I got enough out of my day. Today’s hand cramps bear witness to my continued use of the heavy sled I made. Much safer with the sled and my hold down sticks. My fingers thank me. Atleast this far in they do.

Have a glorious Wednesday. Ciao Bella!

Is through a condensed high light reel with vibrant commentary. You can get the best of multiple games, across various leagues in the time it takes to watch one full game, anthem, to final buzzer. Ain’t nobody got time for that! Forget all the downtime, replays, flags, penalties etc etc… gimme the top line executive summary, and any of the finer points of interest. And no, I’m not much fun at parties.

Bullet point form sports viewing is my primary source of hearing about most games, leagues and players. I will, on occasion watch a full Jay’s & Leafs game, or watch a random football game, but those are few and far between. As much fun as it is to watch eight to ten warm up pitches for every pitcher change, plus game delaying call reviews, and injuries, and hitless pitching match ups. I’d much rather be doing something else with my time. Getting the best bits in a hurry is where it’s at for me, right now.

Tuesday is here. The childrens fall fair is today. Have already had some drama. My youngest has been waving her $5.00 bill around all morning in excitement for the fair, and then promptly dropped it, and lost it before getting to school. Leading to a meltdown and tears. Luckily mum found it, and drove back over to the school so I could hand it off to a late arriving classmate/friend of my daughter. Crisis averted. Potentially. Can always misplace it again. No point getting mad, you have to laugh about it. Children. Good grief.

The oldest is volunteering with the fall fair for all recess breaks today. Their only rule is to not buy any pumpkins. Especially not any of the 150 we donated to the school yesterday morning! Otherwise they could use their five dollars to participate in any other available activity.

I need to go do more laundry. Have a good Tuesday. One week until Halloween! Counting down the days!